Final Ratings: New Fall Shows On ESPN2, Versus See Audience Dips From Initial Episodes

ESPN2’s new show “Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable” has averaged 143,000 viewers in the 4:00pm ET slot since its debut on Sept. 12, though numbers over the last two weeks have been down from the initial two-week period. The show’s top audience was 197,000 viewers set on both Sept. 19 and 20. The net’s other new show this fall, “Numbers Never Lie,” has averaged 132,000 viewers in the 3:30pm slot during the same timeframe. The show has seen a similar decline over the last two weeks. The top audience for the show came on Friday, Sept. 16 with 235,000 viewers, but the program has not had a Friday episode since due to NASCAR programming. Meanwhile, Versus’ four new shows this fall have been led by "NFL Turning Point" on Thursdays in the 10:00pm slot with 83,000 average viewers since its debut on Sept. 15. The show, however, has not topped 100,000 viewers since its debut. “CNBC Sports Biz: Game On!” featuring Darren Rovell has averaged 26,000 viewers in its 7:00pm time slot on Fridays, while “College Football Talk” has averaged 25,000 viewers in its Monday 5:00pm slot. “NBC Sports Talk," which Versus airs daily in the 6:00pm window, has averaged only 24,000 viewers since its debut on Sept. 8.

PRIME NUMBERS: NBC’s Packers-Falcons “SNF” matchup in Week Five averaged a 13.4 final rating and 22.0 million viewers, marking the top primetime program on all of TV for the week ending Oct. 9. The game was also up 30% in both metrics compared to a 10.3 rating and 16.9 million viewers for Eagles-49ers in Week Five last year. Meanwhile, ESPN’s Bears-Lions “MNF” matchup averaged a 10.3 U.S. rating and 16.4 million viewers, down 4% and 5%, respectively, from a 10.7 rating and 17.3 million viewers last year for Vikings-Jets (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).

NOTES: Golf Channel's coverage of last week's PGA Tour Frys.com Open averaged 727,000 viewers, marking the net's most-viewed Fall Series tournament ever. The previous record was 354,000 average viewers for the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open two weeks ago (Golf Channel)....The three-game Lynx-Dream WNBA Finals averaged 515,000 viewers across ESPN/ESPN2, up 4% from last year’s Storm-Dream series, which aired on ABC and ESPN2 (ESPN)….Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia earned a 5.1 local rating for the Flyers’ home opener against the Canucks on Wednesday night, marking the net’s best Flyers regular-season rating ever (CSN Philadelphia)….Rogers Sportsnet averaged 490,000 viewers for the MLB LDS games, marking a record LDS audience for the net. That figure passes the previous record of 434,000 average viewers set in ’09 and is up 21% from last season (Rogers Sportsnet).

The chart below lists final Nielsen ratings from recent sports telecasts. All ratings listed are U.S. ratings.

TELECAST

DATE

NET

TIME (ET)

RAT.

VIEWERS (000)

"NFL on CBS": Jets-Patriots (81%)

10/9

CBS

4:41-7:30pm

13.6

22,598

"Sunday Night Football":
Packers-Falcons

10/9

NBC

8:30-11:22pm

13.4

22,046

"NFL on Fox": (single)

10/9

Fox

1:00-4:05pm

9.9

16,006

"NFL on CBS": (regional)

10/9

CBS

1:00-4:41pm

7.1

11,224

"Football Night in America"

10/9

NBC

7:30-8:15pm

5.8

9,192

NCAA Football: Oklahoma-Texas

10/8

ABC

12:00-3:44pm

4.3

6,533

ALCS: Tigers-Rangers: Game One*

10/8

Fox

8:02pm-1:04am

3.5

5,770

NCAA Football: Ohio State-Nebraska

10/8

ABC

8:07-11:34pm

3.6

5,639

NCAA Football: (regional)

10/8

ABC

3:44-7:30pm

3.5

5,367

NCAA Football: Florida-LSU

10/8

CBS

3:30-6:57pm

3.2

4,912

NCAA Football:
Air Force-Notre Dame

10/8

NBC

3:30-7:00pm

1.1

1,587

Soccer friendly: U.S.-Honduras

10/8

Uni

5:55-8:03pm

0.5

849

Diamond League Track & Field (taped)

10/9

NBC

4:00-5:00pm

0.6

844

World of Adventure Sports (taped)

10/9

NBC

5:00-6:00pm

0.5

763

Mexico Primera Division:
Toluca-CD Guadalajara

10/9

Tele

12:55-3:00pm

0.4

571

Epic Poker: Six-Max
Main Event (taped)

10/8

CBS

1:00-2:00pm

0.3

492

NOTE: Game featured two rain delays. Telecast aired from 8:00-9:45pm, 10:15-11:00pm and 11:45pm-1:00am.